Vol. 2 of Sarasate's music for violin and piano on the Naxos label focuses on the composer's concert fantasies -- works based primarily on popular operatic tunes of the time. As one of the most prominent violinists of his day, Sarasate took every opportunity to infuse these lighthearted works with ample opportunities for himself to show off. As such, modern violinists have a two-fold challenge. The first challenge is handling the various technical demands and the second is not allowing the music to seem trite. Violinist
Tianwa Yang and her accompanist
Markus Hadulla partially succeed with their attempt. From the very first chord of the album, when the unison entrance of the violin and piano sounds distinctly more like an accordion, listeners realize that sound quality is going to be an issue. Indeed, it is a pervasively distracting issue.
Yang's sound is consistently bright, almost forced. Even during long, spinning lines, there's very little warmth or beauty to be found anywhere in her violin's timbre. The piano suffers from similar ailments, and
Hadulla's banging attempts at accompaniment fail to create a unified, musical idea with
Yang. Intonation is sometimes spotty, particularly in the upper registers.
Yang's technical abilities are certainly her strength; she is able to effortlessly toss off sophisticated left- and right-hand acrobatics. Despite her technical gifts, poor sound quality casts too dark a shadow over this recording to make for a pleasurable listening experience.